A Little Less Sixteen Candles
by borderfame-sabrestar
Summary: DM/HG:5/10 Hermione gets away from her friends to escape and runs into the one person she spent all of her energy avoiding, because she knows seeing him again will only cause more damage.


A bit more heartache and teenage drama in the form of DM/HG fanfiction. Can't get over these songfics, there are so many songs which suit this couple so perfectly. Hope you enjoy this installment :) this one has lyrics from A Little Less Sixteen Candles by Fall Out Boy.**  
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><p><strong>A Little Less Sixteen Candles<strong>

_Draco/Hermione_

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><p><em>I confess, I'm messed up<br>Dropping "I'm sorry" like you're still around_

It had been so long since she had spoken to him, since she'd bothered to look over at the Slytherin table to catch his eye and share a small smile, having that certain special secret. No, the feeling had gone. Their friendship had become something that was broken beyond repair and Hermione was too afraid of Draco and of his friends to even consider suffocating her emotions for his satisfaction. She would not humour him this time, not since he had kissed her and made his intentions perfectly clear. That night she had run away and she'd never felt so scared in her entire life.

For a while she thought it was because she was afraid of Draco, but occasionally a little voice in her head murmured that she was only afraid of letting herself _go._ But she often managed to silence that voice rather well.

_And I know you dressed up,  
>Said, "Hey kid you'll never live this down"<em>

Since that day she'd ignored him, knowing that he loved seeing her flare up when he insulted her friends. He was doing it more often these days but she didn't speak to him, occasionally she would resort to a silencing charm to help ignore him, other times she would put something in his potion which would demand his full attention due to the explosive nature of the new concoction. Hermione had her ways of dealing with his childish attitude and after a while it went away and she could continue her life as normal.

_Cause you're just the girl all the boys want to dance with_

And yet, when she saw Draco flirting with the girls from Beauxbatons, she couldn't help but feel a sick, hollow feeling inside of her. She knew he had flirted with girls before occasionally, but he had always laughed with her about how much he hated girls chasing after him all the time, and how sometimes he wished he could have a steady girlfriend, just to cuddle and kiss and be with all the time.

But now, she saw him more and more often with his arm slung around some girl or another, and every time she saw him he'd throw a sly smirk at her, as though he were daring her to come over and say something.

_And I'm just the boy who's had too many chances_

Hermione just wished she knew how to pretend it didn't matter. He'd yell at her and call her names but it used to cause a secretive smile crawl onto her lips, one she'd have to hide quickly to make sure nobody saw it. But these days the glares, the frowns and, to her own surprise, the tears, were not fake at all. In fact they were more real than she'd like.

Why did he affect her so much?

_I'm sleeping on your folk's porch again, dreaming_

It was one of those days, when Harry was busy basking in his Champion Glory and Ron was busy trying to pick up girls, when Hermione would wander from the Gryffindor common room in her jeans and big, warm sweater and sit at the top of the astronomy tower, legs crossed and breathing calm as she stared out at the Hogwarts grounds. Calm, peaceful. Home.

And one night, when she had escaped from Ron trying to copy her charms homework, Hermione went up to the astronomy tower and realised there was already somebody there. She could see a shadow fall from behind one of the pillars, and she walked cautiously up the last few stairs, before she saw it.

Perfect silvery blonde hair.

Hermione tried to behave civilised, but she only made it as far as swallowing nervously, before she turned and ran back down the stairs. She heard him call her name but she didn't stop, and she wondered for a moment how he knew it was her – but she didn't stop.

Suddenly she felt a hand grasp onto her arm and she very stumbled and would have fallen all the way down the spiralling staircase, had the hand not held her tightly and caught her, saving her from the fall.

"Hermione, please, wait," he said, a little breathlessly, and Hermione struggled to pull away from him but he was holding onto her arm very tightly.

_She said, she said, she said, "Why don't you just drop dead?"_

"Don't touch me, Malfoy!" she spat, shoving at him pathetically, squirming to escape from his arms. She felt her heart beating so fast it was hurting her chest and she felt afraid.

"No, don't be like that," he said, and that horrid smirk appeared on his face and he raised his hand to tug on a strand of her hair that had fallen loose.

Hermione's eyes widened and she knew her nostrils were flaring. It was what happened when she was in shock. She gritted her teeth, trying to think of a coherent response. The best she came up with was, "Get your filthy hands off me, Malfoy, before – before I –"

"Before you what?" he hissed. "Call for Scarhead, or Weasel?"

"Don't call them that!" Hermione exclaimed before she realised what she had said, and snapped her mouth shut.

_I don't blame you for being you  
>But you can't blame me for hating it<em>

The harsh glint in Draco's eyes softened, and for a moment Hermione thought he might actually let her go. But he didn't. He did take a small step backwards and he said, "Sorry for jumping you like that. I just wanted to talk. I didn't expect that you would – run away."

Hermione did not reply, but focused all of her energy into glaring at him fiercely. It wasn't often she had to add more fire to her glares but this time she was desperate. She saw the effect it had on Draco – his grip tightened and he made sure she didn't have her wand in hand. He knew a dangerous Hermione when he saw one.

"Look, Hermione, I wanted – no, I needed to see you," said Draco.

_So say, what are you waiting for?_

"Why?" Hermione responded, voice still harsh. "And what, might I ask, gave you the impression that I would want to talk? Maybe try asking before you attack me in the astronomy tower?"

_Kiss her, kiss her_

Draco's lips twitched, but whatever he had been about to say he managed to hold back, and a moment later he was kissing her. Hermione felt her body go rigid as though somebody had cast a body-binding curse on her and she knew that it was wrong, so very, very wrong, and she had to make it stop.

She did the only thing she could think of, as she couldn't move her arms to hit him and couldn't reach her wand – so she bit him, very hard with as many teeth as she could get into his lip. As she had expected, Draco cried out and tore his mouth away from hers, and stared at her with an anger Hermione had never seen and it scared her.

_I set my clocks early 'cause I know I'm always late_

"What are you doing?" she said, trying to raise her voice but failing miserably. Draco's eyes were burning into hers and she felt nervousness crawl inside of her, the shock of the kiss almost electric as her heart pulsed, trying desperately to stop her from fainting.

Draco leaned forward again and Hermione sucked in a breath as his lips ghosted over her cheeks, and he said, "I need you, Hermione."

_Write me off, give up on me  
>Cause darling, what did you expect?<em>

Hermione took a moment to think over what he had said before she shook her head. "No – no, you know – I don't think of you like that. And you – you're – you," she breathed, pretending not to notice how her skin burned when he touched her. She took another deep breath before saying, "And I'm a – a muggle born. You can't, Draco, we can't –"

"You said we," Draco interrupted, staring at her intently. "I know, I can see it when you look at me, Hermione – when you see me with another girl. You miss me, don't you? You wish we still talked. You wish you'd kissed me back the first time."

_I'm just off a lost cause  
>A long shot, don't even take this bet<em>

Hermione felt herself growing smaller and smaller as he spoke, and she closed her eyes and shook her head, and she mumbled, "No, Draco, please – don't make me do this, I can't do this."

"You can," he hissed, moving his hands to grasp her hands, linking her fingers with his as he pressed his lips against her hair, murmuring against her golden brown locks. "Hermione, please, I'm begging you, don't give up on me. We managed to keep our friendship a secret for so long, didn't we? Why is this any different?"

"It's completely different!" Hermione said, her voice becoming a little more high pitched from the insistence in her tone, "It's not like being friends at all, because when somebody asks you why you won't go out with them, what will you say? Or worse, what if you say yes and then I know that you're with other girls? What am I supposed to do?"

_You can make all the moves, you can aim all the spotlights  
>Get all the sighs and the moans just right<em>

She opened her eyes, and found herself staring at a blur of perfect white skin and hair, and she inhaled deeply the deep, spiced scent of his cologne. Her senses were overwhelmed by him, and she knew if she didn't leave very soon she wouldn't have enough sense left to think rationally.

"Hermione, I don't want to be with other girls," Draco said, and Hermione recognised the honesty in his voice. She knew he was telling the truth.

_I'm sleeping on your folk's porch again, dreaming_

Still, she shook her head and said, "But Draco, you can't be with me. I'm not –"

"We can make it work," Draco insisted, moving so his lips were edging closer to hers, opening his mouth to speak again when Hermione decided it was high time she cut him off.

"Draco, we can't ever love each other," she said, and she felt his body freeze as she said the words.

_She said, she said, she said, "Why don't you just drop dead?"_

She knew she was hurting him but she forced herself to keep going, voice unsteady and thick with tears. "No matter what we do, this – this is a battle we can't win."

Draco moved away from her just far enough so they could see each other properly. She watched his eyes flick between hers, back and forth from one to the other. His eyes were impossibly silver, looking like shavings of steel and diamonds were sparkling together from the iris. Hermione felt her heart beat faster just looking at him.

_I don't blame you for being you  
>But you can't blame me for hating it<em>

Draco's words were slow and very carefully, as though he might implode should he speak too quickly. "Hermione," he said, taking breaths between his words, "Please tell me you don't mean that." When Hermione didn't respond he continued. "We both know you're stronger than that. I'm not, but you are. And I'm willing to bet everything on this, to gamble everything for you. Won't you see that? Can't you see how much I've lost without you in my life?"

_So say, what are you waiting for?_

The thoughts running through Hermione's mind were a mess. What would Harry think, oh what would Ron think, Rob absolutely _hated _Draco's guts and would disown her as a friend if she dared to do something so irrational and so stupid. What would the Slytherins do if they found out, what would Draco's father do? Hermione began to shake and her lips trembled, tears welling up in her eyes and beginning to slowly roll down her cheeks.

Draco's face immediately softened and he placed his palms against her cheeks, and wiped her tears with his thumbs. "Don't cry, it's okay," he whispered, like somebody might hear them, even though there wasn't anybody there.

_Kiss her, kiss her  
><em>  
>"Shh, Hermione, it's going to be okay."<p>

"N-no, it's not" Hermione stammered, "I'm s-so scared, Draco, I – I can't do this."

"Don't say that," he said. "You can be strong, Hermione. You're always strong."

_I set my clocks early 'cause I know I'm always late_

She shook her head, his words only causing more hot tears to fall from her eyes, and Draco gathered her in his arms and let her cry into his shoulder, and Hermione knew she should feel terrible about dirtying his lovely new robes but she didn't care. It was too much to deal with, being a teenage girl who was self-conscious but didn't dare say so, and who was so worried about being the girl who would never have a boyfriend, and here she was with a boy with his arms open wide and there was no way she could ever bring herself to be with him.

_You said you'd keep me honest  
>But I won't call you on it<em>

"Hermione, we don't need to decide right now," Draco said quietly as he held onto her. "But can you promise me you'll at least think about it? I know you'd rather take your time rather than make a quick decision."

Hermione nodded, knowing at least she could get a good night's rest and try to calm herself down. She felt him press his lips to her forehead, holding onto her for a moment in a way which made her think he'd never let her go, but he did, and with nothing more than one last hopeful smile, he left her on the stairs of the Astronomy Tower.

_I set my clocks early 'cause I know I'm always late_


End file.
